2 weeks Ago By Guest Author
Explainer Briefly Slides By Luca Belli This past week, the Heads of State of the BRICS group met in Kazan, the capital of the Republic of Tatarstan, Russia, hosted by the President of the Russian Federation, Vladimir Putin. For the first time, the group was officially meeting in its new expanded configuration, which includes new members Egypt, the United Arab Emirates, Ethiopia, Iran and Saudi Arabia. More than 20 Heads of State joined the gathering which increased the number of candidates for membership and partnership.
After the Russian presidency, it will be Brazil’s turn to host the BRICS Summit, between the G20 and COP30, all in less than 12 months starting from November 2024. For the Brazilian government, this diplomatic ultramarathon is a unique opportunity to play an international leadership role, shaping the debate around some key issues emerging from the Kazan Declaration as well as the recent G20 works, especially regarding the digital economy. This is a particularly decisive moment for connecting agendas that are among the most crucial for the Global South in general and Brazil in particular: fair digital transformation, promotion of sustainable development, and fight against inequalities.
It is increasingly clear that these issues are closely connected. Automation through artificial intelligence (AI) is an eloquent example. Depending on how and by whom AI systems—and the infrastructures that support them—are built and regulated, they can either be powerful vectors of development and increased productivity, or facilitate authoritarianism, environmental disasters and the concentration of power.
In this sense, observing the developments taking place within the BRICS is particularly relevant to understanding the strategies and priorities of the leaders of the Global South and how they can impact national and international policymaking. As research by the CyberBRICS project of FGV Law School Rio’s Center for Technology and Society shows, the work of the BRICS is a very interesting predictor of global developments. Over the last decade, digital transformation has begun to occupy an increasingly prominent place on the grouping’s agenda.
Since the 2013 Summit, which took place just a few weeks after the Edward Snowden revelations, the bloc’s countries have reaffirmed their commitment to cybersecurity and digital sovereignty, which have become domestic and international priorities for most of them. It is worth pointing out that, for Global South countries, essentially nothing has changed since the revelations about the massive spying schemes orchestrated by the US National Security Agency (NSA), which at the time even involved the illegal interception of former President Dilma Rousseff and several high-ranked members of the Brazilian government, among many others. Since then, BRICS members have highlighted the importance of cybersecurity and the need to define a universal regulatory framework on cybercrime, led by the United Nations.
It is important to note that, in August of this year, this vision, intensely supported by BRICS for a decade, withstood criticism and turbulence and came to fruition in the new Convention on Cybercrime which was adopted by consensus by the United Nations. This is perhaps one of the greatest products of the coordination and joint action of BRICS leaders with regard to digital policies, despite the criticisms that can legitimately be raised about the Convention—the scope which is so broad that it could facilitate surveillance and repression. However, only five years ago, the thought that the text of a Convention on Cybercrime proposed by BRICS countries could be adopted by the UN was not an option taken seriously by the vast majority of observers.
The world is changing fast and what was unthinkable five years ago is becoming possible. The technological race to be a leader in AI and the growing perception of our lack of digital sovereignty, in the midst of the accelerated digitalization that the pandemic has forced us into, and in an extremely tense international environment, have in fact turbocharged the advancement of the objective for which BRICS was created. Indeed, since its inception, BRICS has aimed to build a multipolar order in which the leaders of the Global South move beyond a passive role to become active players in global governance and development.
Looking at recent events, it seems that, for better or worse, this multipolar order is being established in full swing. In this context, it is extremely relevant that in considering the role of digitalization and AI, the group has just committed itself for the first time to “the design of a global framework for data governance, including cross-border data flows, to [..
.] ensure the interoperability of data regulatory frameworks at all levels.” The digital policies of the BRICS countries already exert a significant international influence and the group has the capacity to promote legislative interoperability in terms of data governance, as the CyberBRICS survey highlights.
In addition, BRICS has already set up an AI Study Group. In 2017, in a far more diplomatically relaxed time that now seems a long way off, Vladimir Putin himself commented that “whoever becomes the leader [in AI] will become the ruler of the world.” The rather frightening tone of the Russian warning has not been contradicted by the technological, political and economic developments of recent years.
When it comes to AI and, more generally, the digital transformation that the adoption of AI enables, it is extremely important to have a clear understanding of what we want, what our interests are, and how to achieve them effectively. Not having clarity and a strategic vision on these matters is a major flaw. Brazil should use the coming months as an opportunity to test and refine its strategy.
The country has a unique opportunity to champion a positive vision of digital sovereignty that promotes development and rejects authoritarianism, prioritizing a secure and sustainable digital transformation. Luca Belli is Professor at FGV Law School where he directs the Center for Technology and Society. Also Read:.
